By John BristowComments Off on Importance of Networking and the Internet for Survival and Transformation

In this website I aim to provide, with others, interesting and informative examples of people exploring and modelling co-creation in the process of innovating in ways that seem aligned to current and future needs.

This and other related websites can help us learn together fast enough to keep pace with crises and opportunities for change. So it is to be a forum for networking and sharing experiences and ideas, using links and email addresses on the site. Contributors will be by invitation only. But they can also of course provide direct links to their own and others’ work, projects or experiences.

There are two assumptions here:

We need to collaborate and learn together to survive and be more resilient in the face of shocks, risks and uncertainties in turbulent times so that we can ensure a future with less loss of human (and other forms of) life, and destruction of our habitat and our past cultures and heritage, during a period of transition. It has been found from studies of societal change that networks are key for collaboration and support in the innovation process and for spreading best practice, and that they need to extend across the key groups in a society and link those operating at local and national or international scales.

The internet, as seen by many, is a key tool for our survival and development in times when our actions, aided by our technology, can affect each other and all life on the planet much more than in the past adding to more connectivity, interdependence and complexity, and the need for greater co-responsibility. A recent (24th May 2010) talk at the Royal Society of Arts by David Eagleman stimulated me to take this further. This was Six Easy Steps to Avert the Collapse of Civilisation. He identified some reasons why previous civilisations or communities had collapsed and suggested from this how we must harness human ingenuity, social capital and new technology (e.g. the internet) to ensure a sustainable future for humanity.

The exchanges between us will, it is hoped, not only help people see what is needed or wanted but also to share ideas and practical examples that point to solutions or the way ahead, combining an informed realism with real signs of hope – a polarity (hope and realism) that the US President Obama used in his inaugural address in January 2009. The aim is to play a part in empowering people to use what they know and to learn what they need to, and to expand their own networks.